Or, where ya came from.

For me, this is going back more than a few years. This is the house that I grew up in located in the Hudson Valley of New York. It was built on an old farm, so old that I’ve never been able to find anyone that could tell me about it, other than the family’s name that owned it. My parents weren’t from the immediate area; my Dad grew up on the West Side of the Hudson River, (near Poughkeepsie) and my Mom grew up near Utica. I do know that they bought 2 1/2 acres of land from the developer, and this house was the first one that was built in what became a cul-de-sac. Insomuch as real estate prices have gone absolutely bonkers in this area over the past 35 years, I can tell you that in the mid 1960s when they bought the property and built the house, it only cost in the neighborhood of $18,000.

It was a great place to grow up. New developments tend to attract families with children, and this was the case here. Granted it took a few years before the first family moved in that had children around my and my brothers’ age, but in ’71 a family with 5 boys built a house opposite ours, and from then on it was laughter and play and camaraderie from one end of the development to the other. I honestly think I was actually able to investigate just about every house that was built in the cul-de-sac, save for maybe two. I was always enamored with earth moving machines (blame my Uncles that lived in Sullivan County who owned an excavating business) so when a new property was staked off and the bulldozers came in on dollies, I was there to watch the goings on.

Going over the family photos, I’m amazed at how they decided to place each house in the development. Over the years through research, I’ve found the maps that were made up during the 60s when the land was being subdivided, and all the names that I was going to become familiar with (ie: my neighbors). Even though this was built on a pretty sizable farm, there was careful planning on where to put each property, so that one didn’t necessarily get more acreage than the next. The only exceptions were the property where the original farmhouse was, that had approximately 100 acres, and the land at the top of the hill wasn’t developed for many years, until finally an elderly gentleman and his wife had a pretty impressive home built on the property with amazing views of the Catskills and the Hudson River escarpment. They had grandchildren that visited from Michigan every summer, so there were MORE kids that we could play with. Which was amazing and wonderful in and of itself.

27 years later, it was time to pull up stakes and leave. Over the years families had come and gone, but the houses remained. I do fervently wish that we could have kept the property, as I wasn’t really ready to move out when it came time to sell. Of course, once the property hit the market, we immediately within a few days had several offers. Granted they were what I considered then (and still do today) low-ball offers, since the majority of the people interested were from the NYC area and had money to burn. But my Dad had Alzheimer’s, and I had been spending a good deal of money on aides to keep him safe, while I worked full-time.

I did my due diligence I think; had the house re-sided to it’s original gray, but added maroon shutters to make it look a little more modern. The new homeowners didn’t waste any time removing them and restoring the cedar exterior and staining it so it looked more retro. Still not sure which color scheme I most prefer. When I was in the Hudson Valley last year for my HS Class Reunion, I happened to stop by the old neighborhood and discovered the family living there was having the house repainted. As you can see, they did a really good job, stripping the old layers of paint down to either the original gray, or the primer underneath. While the house was owned by my parents, I believe it was painted three times. The original gray and 2 coats of a faded pumpkin color with green shutters. Yeah, it was the 70s. Checking Zillow and Redfin recently, I wasn’t terribly surprised to see that the property is valued at nearly $600k; there are houses in the neighborhood that have sold for at least that much and there’s one up the hill that’s listed for $1.8 million right now.

It’s definitely a different time. Most of my HS classmates and their families have moved away, or to nearby towns and villages because the real estate market is too rich for them anymore. Too, the taxes have gone up exponentially, and unless you have deep pockets to maintain, you have to shed some tears, pull up stakes and cash in. When I was there for the reunion, we stayed at an AirBnB just outside of town, and the roads were awash with Teslas, very pricey SUVs and very very few affordable sedans like I would have easily seen when I was in school. When my parents owned the house, either they, or my brother or I mowed the lawn, raked the leaves and did all the upkeep on the property. Near as I could tell when visiting, these people have a service. I wager I could count on one hand how many properties in the cul-de-sac have a lawn mower in their garage. More than likely they have a Mercedes in one bay and nothing in the other. About the only thing that made me smile was to see the large red maple tree along the driveway. It was massive, at least 50 years old and looked very healthy. When I was 5, my parents bought 2 maple trees and planted them along the driveway. My brother’s was a green maple, mine the red. His unfortunately developed a disease that was affecting the crown, so we had to cut it down, but mine is still going strong. I can only hope it goes on for a long long time.